Honest Trailer
Honest Trailers 'is a weekly comedy series that satirizes and parodies movies and TV shows. ''Honest Trailers are short comedy videos, usually 3-7 minutes in length, that combine the visual style of movie trailers with parody voiceover to humorously reveal the true nature of a movie or show. Honest Trailers is produced by the '''Screen Junkies YouTube channel. The flagship series was created in 2012 by Andy Signore and Brett Weiner. Since 2012, more than 250 Honest Trailers have been produced and have achieved a combined total of over 1 billion views. Honest Trailers is also critically acclaimed. The series has been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Shortform Variety Series" three times, in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Honest Trailers has also won two Streamy Awards - Best Writing in 2016, and Best Collaboration in 2017, shared with actor Ryan Reynolds. The most well-known episode of Honest Trailers is probably the 2016 Honest Trailer for Deadpool, which included a surprise appearance from Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds as the foul-mouthed, fourth-wall-breaking superhero himself. Some Hollywood directors have stated they are fans of the Honest Trailers series, for example Joe and Anthony Russo. The narrator for Honest Trailers is Jon Bailey, who plays a character called Epic Voice Guy. Honest Trailers are written by a team of writers, usually 3-6 people. More than 45 people have received writing credits on Honest Trailers since 2012. The current team of writers consists of Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Joe Starr and Lon Harris. Spencer and Dan have contributed to over 250 Honest Trailers each, while Joe has contributed to over 150. [[List of Honest Trailers|'Click here for the full list of Honest Trailers.']] Inception According to co-creator Andy Signore, the Honest Trailers series was originally going to be a series called "Your Movie Sucks!" where the writers re-watched old movies and told viewers why they sucked. Signore felt this idea was tired and cliched, so suggested using the trailer format and voiceover narration. According to Metro, the first Honest Trailer was intended to be a one-off joke to mock the over-hyped 3D re-release of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. '' After that video's (relatively moderate) success, '''Screen Junkies chose to make more videos including 'Titanic, Twilight and Transformers. Some people presumed further Honest Trailers wouldn't be successful, as the 3D re-release of The Phantom Menace was a very specific cultural phenomenon. However the next batch of Honest Trailers achieved even more views. The first Honest Trailer to truly break-out was Twilight. According to co-creator Signore, a key element in the success of The Phantom Menace and Twilight Honest Trailers was that both videos were shared by the website 9GAG, which increased their audience reach. It wasn't until the team applied the format to beloved fan favorite The Dark Knight that they believed in the show's longevity. Since then, the series has been continued to over 250 episodes. In addition, two spin-off series have been created using the same format: Honest Game Trailers, produced by YouTube channel Smosh Games; and Honest Trailers Anime, produced exclusively for the paid subscription service Screen Junkies Plus. In 2017, Screen Rant suggested that Honest Trailers became a success "almost by accident." The site wrote that the Screen Junkies channel "set out to explicitly build its brand; go back to the start of the channel and you find a slew of playful movie-themed videos attempting to tap into the zeitgeist, with Honest Trailers emerging as a success almost by accident after a single video mocking the 3D re-release of The Phantom Menace." Screen Rant also acknowledged that Honest Trailers rose to prominence at a similar time to [[Comparison of Honest Trailers and CinemaSins|CinemaSins' Everything Wrong With series]] and that both series depended on one another: "despite being disconnected, in the early days they each elevated the other, creating this new brand of criticism infused with humor and a balance of traditional film theory observations and more nitpicky, nerd-focused ideas; the sort of things that movie fans would notice and mock incessantly yet never allowed to take away from the film." The site argues the two series together formed "a new wave of film criticism that moved beyond academic essays and even traditional reviews (written or video) into a sort of internet-defined form." Influences Honest Trailers are a subset of re-cut trailers, a form of mashup video that "uses footage from a movie or its original trailers to create a completely new context or one different from the original source material. The mashups are parody trailers that derive humor from misrepresenting original films" (from Wikipedia). The root of re-cut trailers ultimately lies in the earlier fan practice of vidding. Vollans observed that "the very concept of this kind of trailer stems from the antecedent practice of vidding." According to Wikipedia, fan vidding goes all the way back to the 1970's. Early Web Videos ' Honest Trailers series by just over 2 years.]] Mashup videos became popular on the internet in the early 2000's. As Wired points out, "As with most things on the internet, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where, when or how the first remixed movie came into existence, or whether remixes preceded supercuts, or vice versa, and so forth. But there are definitely forerunners. Some point to a 2003 video known as “Kill Christ,” a brutally funny remixing of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ." In 2013, Mitch Rotter (Break Media's former Head of Programming who executive produced the first 40 Honest Trailers) suggested the 2005 re-cut trailer for The Shining marks emergence of the format. The popular YouTube comedy series Literal Trailers by Tobuscus (which has been published since 2009 on YouTube) may have provided inspiration for the Screen Junkies' re-cut trailer series. Literal Trailers was extremely popular between 2010 and 2012, with many episodes achieving millions of views. In addition, there are several "honest trailers" that predate Screen Junkies' series, for example The REAL Indiana Jones 4 trailer 'by playdohfactoryworker (published January 25, 2009) and 'Black Swan The Honest Trailer by Frank Kemp (published December 1 2010). YouTube channel Red Letter Media is another influence, particularly their well-known 2009 comedic video review of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace which combines geek film analysis and sophomoric comedy. Mad Magazine Additionally, some media commentators have noted the stylistic similarities between Honest Trailers ''and the influential comedy/satire magazine ''Mad, ''which was founded in 1952. Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere wrote that cartoonist Jack Davis's work in ''Mad magazine is the "first surfacing of the 'Honest Trailers' aesthetic," and calls Mad "an early print version of the playfully critical style of Honest Trailers." The writers of Honest Trailers frequently cite Mad magazine's movie spoofs as an influence on their work. For example, the January 1967 issue of Mad featured a parody of The Sound of Music, called "The Sound of Money," which is similar to the honest title trope later adopted by Honest Trailers. It also features parody lyrics, similar to the song parodies Honest Trailers incorporate into their musical episodes. It also includes an introduction that sells the movie by its worst features, in the same way the Honest Trailers voiceover narration does: "Nothing but a collection of the same old dull cliches and boring tear-jerker gimmicks that you've been seeing in movie musicals for years." Mystery Science Theater 3000 Furthermore, several commentators have noted the similarity between Honest Trailers and comedy/film criticism show Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) which aired during the 1980's and 1990's. Unger the Radar writes, "Think of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and you have “Honest Trailers”, a brutally honest take on many of today and yesterday’s ridiculous film trailers." Consequences of Sound argues that Honest Trailers is clearly inspired by MST3k, and emphasizes how influential MST3K was, writing: "for many, the major source of inspiration (and film education) instilled upon them at a young age was and is Mystery Science Theater 3000, which was always a comedy show before it was a film class." The site wrote that "laughing at bad movies was obviously A Thing before MST3k came along, but the show offered an innovative template for that experience – a way to enjoy those bad movies that was accepted and even entertaining." Vodzilla suggests that many currently popular web series such as Honest Trailers and Bad Lip Reading use the same style of jokes as MST3k and should be considered a part of the same genre: “The idea of riffing, of mocking, of commenting on things is very prevalent nowadays,” writer and performer Mary Jo Pehl commented to Wired. “Obviously, it was happening before '''Mystery Science Theater' codified it. But it just seems to have pervaded a lot of the way comedy is done now — it’s its own genre.”'' (Ivan Radford, April 13, 2017, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The sci-fi show 30 years ahead of its time ' Vodzilla) Style ''Be honest, as in, NOT sarcastic...We have to call it like it is '~ Spencer GilbertGilbert, S. '"Here’s What Goes into Making an Honest Trailer,"' IndieWire, October 9, 2014 The series mimics the style of trailers popular in the 1980's and 1990's, known as the '"In a world..."' style of trailers, which was popularized by voice actors '''Don LaFontaine' and Hal Douglas. As Audio Socket notes, "there’s a formula for movie trailers, and it’s so well-known that it’s become the source of satire and parody. Screen Junkies’ Honest Trailers, for instance, has racked up 6.4 million subscribers by playing on these stock elements in particular movie trailers for the delight of weekly audiences." The subjects of Honest Trailers are primarily blockbuster films and popular short run TV series. Summing Up The Moviegoing Experience The goal of the Honest Trailers series is to cut through advertising hype, and to humorously -- but accurately --portray the film's subject matter, style and quality. Honest Trailers' ''intent is to create "a perceptually accurate narrative reflection" of a film, albeit, one that is "often abridged for comical effect" (from Cross media promotion: entertainment industries and the trailer). A common misconception is that the series is ubiquitously negative about all films. However, good films are praised, often extravagantly, for example: 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier, ''Die Hard, ''Mad Max: Fury Road ''and 'The Jungle Book (2016). The writers try to avoid describing the plot in detail or nitpicking details only a super-fan would understand. Rather, they try to summarize how a typical audience member might interpret a film. Head writer Spencer Gilbert explains the principle like this: "Keep it simple. We could nitpick the movie to death, pointing out every plot hole and continuity error, but it’s our firm belief that no one cares or even remembers details like that for these big dumb action flicks. The trailer is there to sum up the general moviegoing experience, not take the viewer through it step-by-step." The series is known for humorously pointing out plot-holes, gaps in logic, mistakes and for poking fun at the cast and crew. However, an Honest Trailer also functions as a review of the film. The voiceover provides commentary on the characters, story, action, performances, direction, score, etc. For example, The Social Network Honest Trailer refers to the film's "snappy dialogue, slick directing and great performances." ''As such, the website Art + Marketing classifies ''Honest Trailers as a form of video essay, noting that Screen Junkies approach "involves criticizing a single movie with the same approach that you might see in a text review in a newspaper or magazine." Putting Movies in Context '' used a clip from Disney's 1946 film The Song of the South to put the movie in historical context.]] Honest Trailers often refer to news stories, behind-the-scene drama and fan controversies that relate the to film. For example, the ''Justice League'' Honest Trailer referred to director Zack Snyder's personal tragedy, in addition to the corporate-bonus-related reasons why the release date was not changed. When making Honest Trailers for older films, the writers also draw on historical sources and refer to cultural shifts, for example the Honest Trailer for ''Peter Pan (1953)'' discusses and provides examples of racism from other early Disney movies. The writers may also incorporate references to a film's ephemera and ancillary material, including sequels, TV spin-offs, toys, merchandising or advertising material. For example: the Honest Trailer for ''The LEGO Movie shows LEGO tie-in toys; the Honest Trailer for 'Ghostbusters 2 showed clips from the 1970's TV show, the Honest Trailer for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle shows an advert Jack Black made as a child; the Honest Trailer for Shrek shows behind-the-scene animation blunders; the Honest Traile''r for 'Showgirls' shows scenes from the film with isolated audio. The purpose of using this material is sometimes to get a laugh, but sometimes to prove a point. Additionally, ''Honest Trailers sometimes critique more than just the film; they also critique fandom, nostalgia, and the cultural significance of some films. For example, the dueling narrators in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens Honest Trailer illustrated how polarized the Star Wars fandom had become. Likewise, the Ghostbusters reboot' Honest Trailer called out online harassment. The two Honest Teasers that Screen Junkies have produced use a parody "trailer reaction" format to satirize fan culture more directly. '' included several Minions memes to humorously summarize Facebook.]] Honest Trailers also incorporate numerous pop culture references to other movies, TV shows, songs, musicians, politics, current events, and internet memes. Sometimes these references are obvious, but other times they are obscure.The writers deliberately include obscure references ("one-percenters") knowing that only a tiny fraction of their audience will get them. Point of View Honest Trailers are written from a subjective perspective - that of the narrator '''Epic Voice Guy. '''The writers incorporate Epic Voice Guy's (fictional) personal history and viewpoint into the videos. For example, kids movies are narrated from the perspective of a Dad taking his kid to the theater, e.g. in the ''Finding Nemo Honest Trailer, the narrator noted that the film made him re-evaluate his "entire adult life". In addition, numerous Honest Trailers are narrated from the perspective of a fanboy, e.g. the Batman: The Killing Joke Honest Trailer took the angle of a long-time fan of the comic book - the narrator objected to the film's "wannabe edgy" content as a fan of its edgy source material. Similarly, Honest Trailers for 80's and 90's movies are written from the perspective a grown adult who first saw the films as a child, e.g., in the Hook Honest Trailer, the narrator reflected that the movie was much darker and slower than he remembered as a kid. Additionally, Honest Trailers for romantic movies have been narrated from the perspective of an uninterested boyfriend (e.g. The Notebook), and an unsatisfied husband (e.g. in the Fifty Shades Darker Honest Trailer, the narrator complained about the film's bland sex scenes because he "has a dull marriage".). Running Jokes Over the years, Honest Trailers have developed several running jokes, including honest titles, vault episodes, career retrospective episodes, 'stares', 'bewbs,' parody song lyrics and the intermittent appearance of a velociraptor that shouts Alan! Screen Junkies also occasionally produce other Honest Trailers 'that don't fit within their usual scope of film/TV parody such as a '2015 video that parodied the digital media conference the NewFronts and a [[Other Honest Trailers#Honest Trailers - Flick Bait|2017 video that parodied their web series Flick Bait]]. In addition, two spinoff series have been created: Honest Game Trailers and Honest Trailers Anime.'' Format Intro '), the comments were satirical.]] ''Honest Trailers always start with screencaps of viewer comments suggesting which movie the team should do next. Hai Vision suggests that displaying comments fosters engagement and creates a sense of community: "it shows that this video topic was highly anticipated, and it gives the commenters on display public acknowledgement (and a small sense of personal satisfaction)." All Honest Trailers also begin with a green title card featuring the Honest Trailers logo. This title card was originally designed to mimic the style of an American film rating. Structure and Language Honest Trailers typically start with the broadest comments about a film's historical/cultural context, genre or the director's career, and then get progressively more specific. In the Honest Trailer Commentary for Memento, head writer Spencer Gilbert discusses this structure in more detail. Descriptions can be quite lengthy and often use humorous interpretation. For example: The Emmys:' "''In a world where every network spends millions to get the attention of Emmy voters..."; '''Alice in Wonderland: "From director Tim Burton, the inspiration behind most Hot Topic merchandise..." The narrator also speaks directly to the viewer and gives simple commands attached to lengthy descriptions of the setting, plot and characters. Examples: Pitch Perfect: "'''Meet Beca, a snarky, pretentious wannabe DJ who hates her dad for paying her tuition..."; Warcraft: '"'Journey 'to the land of Azeroth, where the kingdom of Stormwind is beset by orcs from the planet Draenor..." ''The most commonly used commands in the ''Honest Trailers series'' ''are ''"Suit up..." "Ride along..." and "Strap in..." The narrator may make several evaluative observations in a row, before simply reacting to something on screen or sharing a funny fact about himself. For example, during the Ready Player One Honest Trailer, he interrupts his description of the film to scream in horror at a character's faint birthmark, and to gripe about his mother. These reactions serve two purposes: they are funny, and they make the videos seem more informal. In the Honest Trailer Commentary for the ''Honest Trailer Written by a Robot'', head writer Spencer Gilbert describes this observation-reaction format as the rhythm of an Honest Trailer. Honest Trailers often use humorous poetic devices, especially similes and metaphors. For example, the Honest Trailer[[Honest Trailer - Transformers: The Last Knight| for ''Transformers: The Last Knight]]' describes the action as ''"like two radio shacks doing Karma Sutra in a hurricane," while the Honest Trailer[[Honest Trailer - Aliens| for Aliens]] describes the film's aesthetic style as "like a sex toy factory made out of scorpions." ''Typically, these sorts of comments are well received in reviews, for example ScreenRant wrote that the opening line for '''The Room Honest Trailer ("the sheer amount of suck will collapse in on itself like a dying star, and explode in a supernova of unintentional genius") was "strangely poetic - and arguably accurate." Starring Section Honest Trailer, the starring name for Honey Lemon was 'April O'Nerd,' a reference to her looking like the TMNT character April O'Neil, only nerdier.]] Each trailer ends with a 'starring' section where the actors are given silly names - often a combination of puns and pop culture references, especially references to other fictional characters, song lyrics, old TV shows and the actors' family members. For example, the Catching Fire Catching Fire refers to Liam Hemsworth as "Baby Thor"' '''and Donald Sutherland as "Jack Bauer's Dad." The starring sections may also list common phrases, tropes and cinematic techniques used in the film or TV show. For example, the starring section of the 'Sherlock Honest Trailer' showed montages of the characters texting, Moriarty licking stuff, Sherlock sniffing things, and Sherlock saying the word "obviously." The 'starring' text is designed to mimic the text in the original movie. See picture from the 'Big Hero 6 Honest Trailer' as example. The starring graphics are designed by UK motion graphics artist 'Robert Holtby. Honest Title for the Shrek Honest Trailer was 'Swamp Thing' a reference to Shrek's natural habitat and the DC comics character, Swamp Thing.]] The videos culminates in an alternate title that aims to summarize the film or point out its most memorable feature. For example, the honest title for ''Cars'' was Money, in reference to the film's merchandising profitability. The Honest Title for ''Jurassic Park 3'' was The One Where a Dinosaur Says Alan, in reference to the fact that the film is so lackluster that it is not known for any other feature. The titles are designed to mimic the visual style of the original movies. See picture from the ''Shrek Honest Trailer'' as example. The honest titles are designed by UK motion graphics artist '''Robert Holtby. For a full list of honest titles, see the honest title page. For a full gallery of honest title images, see the Robert Holtby page. Viewer comments The narrator always reads a selection of viewer comments in his "epic voice" at the end of each Honest Trailer. These comments are usually completely ridiculous. The Pubcast noted that this section "has become a familiar and well-liked part of the Honest Trailer experience. It’s also a sneaky way to get a lot of comments on their videos, but never mind that. It’s hard to mind when you can hear John Bailey say 'My llama crashed into a cactus,' just because someone asked him to." On other occasions, the comments are selected to pay tribute to a recently deceased screen legend by quoting lines from their movies. Celebrities honored in this way include Bill Paxton, Alan Rickman, Carrie Fisher and many others. Narration Honest Trailers has had several narrators over the years. The longest-running narrator is Jon Bailey, a professional voice artist who also narrates real movie trailers. Bailey has been with the series since 2012 - his first Honest Trailers was episode 15, The Lord of the Rings. Bailey also voices the Honest Trailers spinoff series Honest Game Trailers and Honest Trailers Anime. Bailey's voice is strongly associated with the series - so much so that many viewers wrongly believe he makes the videos entirely on his own in his basement. Jon Bailey's voice-over persona is referred to as Epic Voice Guy and has become a character in his own right. Epic Voice Guy has fictional interests, a fictional family and fictional personality quirks that he shares in Honest Trailers for comedic effect (see the Epic Voice Guy page for more details). Bailey's style of narration is heavily influenced by prominent voice artists Hal Douglas and Don LaFontaine. However, Bailey occasionally changes the style of narration to suit different genres, such as using a "rom-com" voice for The Notebook, and a "family movie" voice for Home Alone. He also imitated the voice from the actual Harry Potter trailers, which lead to a flood angry comments from people who thought Jon had been replaced. Previous narrators such as Gannon Nickell have returned to Honest Trailers for special occasions, for example to provide contrasting narration for the highly divisive Star Wars films The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. Now that The Last Jedi has been briefly mentioned on this page, please feel free to ignore everything else written here and talk about that at length in the comment section below. Production Film selection video shows the behind-the-scenes making of Honest Trailers, using the episode ''Star Trek Into Darkness'' as an example.]] The Screen Junkies team works out a schedule of Honest Trailers months in advance. The Honest Trailers writers gravitate towards certain genres, especially action movies, science-fiction movies, superhero movies and kids movies. In general, Honest Trailers for popular films produce more popular Honest Trailers. '' The writers have stated they are given more creative license for one out of every four ''Honest Trailers, which often results in more eclectic choices, such as the cult film Showgirls, the universally-panned but little-known crime film Gotti, and some truly preposterous flops like Robin Hood and Mortal Engines. Writer/producer Dan Murrell explains the process of film selection like this: "We have to do a lot of movies that we, like, don't have as big a take on because they're "big" movies. We need to stay in business. But I think sometimes, when we have a chance, to sometimes maybe skip a quote unquote "bigger" one to do something like this [Mortal Engines]." Writer/producer Joe Starr agrees, saying "Sometimes Honest Trailers has to get back to its roots and just do something dumb, whether or not it's attached to something on the schedule." The writers very rarely make Honest Trailers for comedy films. They have explained this is because it's much harder to make jokes about something that is already funny. The writers say that self-aware parody films are the hardest genre of films to give the Honest Trailers treatment. For example, the writers have avoided making an Honest Trailer for The LEGO Batman Movie for years'','' despite repeated fan requests, because, in their opinion, the film is already tantamount to an Honest Trailer for Batman. Viewer input Although each trailer begins with screenshots of viewer comments requesting the film the show should tackle next, these comments are often too recent to have influenced the production schedule. Nonetheless, viewer preferences are taken into account. For example, Screen Junkies often run Twitter polls to determine which film to make an Honest Trailer on; Baby Driver '''''was selected via a Twitter poll. Additionally, they usually run Fan Appreciation Month in January, where fans get to vote on films from a drop-down menu of options. This often leads to unusual Honest Trailer choices, for example ''mother! '' In 2018, Screen Junkies ran a fundraiser for the charity Women in Film where they offered one $10,000 donor the reward of picking any Honest Trailer they wanted. A generous sadist donated $10k and requested an Honest Trailer for all 55 years of Doctor Who. Screen Junkies honored this donation, producing two Honest Trailers: one for the [[Honest Trailer - Doctor Who (Classic)|classic era of Doctor Who]], and another for the [[Honest Trailer - Doctor Who (Modern)|modern era of Doctor Who]]. Release schedule Screen Junkies typically make Honest Trailers for blockbuster movies to coincide with their release on digital/Blu-ray. This strategy, known as trend surfing, is used by many other YouTube parody channels including CinemaSins and How It Should Have Ended. Trend surfing capitalizes on a film being back in the online conversation, which increases views. When the team pick older movies, they usually relate to a movie being released in theaters that week. For example, the Honest Trailer for 'Deep Blue Sea (1999) was released to coincide with the theatrical release of the similarly shark-themed movie, The Meg. Writing and writer Jason Pickar at their desks.]] Well-made movies are fun to watch but difficult to Honest Trailer-ize, but the opposite is true of bad movies. '~ Spencer Gilbert'' Honest Trailers typically take about a week to make and are created by '''a team of writers. The team of writers begin by watching the film or show on their own and taking notes. Over the years, the size of this team has varied from 3-6 people. The writers come together for a group writing session where they discuss their observations and notes. Head writer Spencer Gilbert has the job of incorporating the various notes into a cohesive draft script. The script goes through various rewrites and versions. Very often the writers don't remember who came up with what line. The draft includes specific references to the exact clips from the movie the writers want included to punctuate their jokes, usually with attached time code to make the task of editing easier. Spencer Gilbert explains the creative process: "It’s still difficult to avoid the deep well of sarcasm that lives at the core of every comedy writer, but the series is always better for it. While punching up the first draft in the writers room, an uncomfortable question arises: since this is the 3rd “Transformers” trailer we’ve done, are the jokes all too similar to each other? Are we starting to repeat ourselves? The answer is a begrudging ‘yes.'" The series often use twists on the Honest Trailers formula to avoid repetition, including: Transformers: Age of Extinction in which the last third was narrated in Chinese in a meta reference to the film pandering to the Chinese market; Memento in which the segments of the Honest Trailer were played backwards in reference to the film's backwards structure; and A Quiet Place in which the video was translated into ASL. Honest Trailers has been nominated for multiple writing awards. The series was nominated for the Streamy Award for "Best Writing" three years in a row (from 2015 to 2017), winning in 2016 (See below: Awards). Recording records his narration from a recording booth in his home in Tennessee. A Screen Junkies producer is on the phone with him during the recording session, giving him directions.]]Jon Bailey records his narration from the booth in his house, under the direction of one of the Screen Junkies producers. The script Jon receives contains lots of alternate lines in order to make it easier for the production team to swap out jokes that aren't working. Jon also improvises some lines. In the early days, Bailey took up to an hour to record his narration, but has got that time down to around 20 minutes. Editing , pictured here in his edit-bay. In 2018, the series had two editors, TJ Nordaker and Kevin Williamsen.]] Honest Trailers are designed to resemble real movie trailers in editing conventions. This includes the use of "discontinuous montage, fast editing, voice over narrative and the use of imitation or actual studio branding images" (from Cross media promotion: entertainment industries and the trailer). The first stage of editing is creating "stringouts," which involves collecting numerous clips from the movie, e.g. every instance of a recurring trope. The post-production team combines narration, music, sound effects, clips from the movie, specially created title sequences, and any other still images (eg, movie posters, photos of key film-makers, screenshots of news articles, etc). If the film has been released on digital or Blu-ray for a while, the editors use clips from the full movie. However, as shown in the "The Making of Honest Trailers" video, sometimes the film is released the day before the video is due to be uploaded. In the case of Star Trek Into Darkness (as shown in the behind-the-scenes video), editor 'Dan Murrell initially used temp footage. When the full movie became legally available, he was required to stay up all night to edit the video in order to meet the deadline. The team reviews the video, cuts jokes or even re-records parts of the narration if necessary - and if time permits. The editing of Honest Trailers is often praised. Medium declared that Honest Trailers "are (really really) well edited: Unlike many YouTube creators who are into vlogging or other simpler video creation process, ScreenJunkies depend a lot on how well their videos are edited to convey the intent well while engaging the audience." The site went onto observe, "The video clips, transitions and sound effects are orchestrated really well to achieve high audience engagement, one of the best among YouTube creators....the story they portray in that 5 mins will usually require a densely packed presentation of audio and visual cues that are in sync with their narration." In 2018, Honest Trailers was nominated for the Streamy Award for "Best Editing." (See below:' Awards') Publication Honest Trailers are uploaded to Screen Junkies main channel on YouTube on Tuesdays at 10am PST. The first eight Honest Trailers were uploaded monthly. From October 2012 - April 2014, Honest Trailers were uploaded every two weeks (roughly). From summer 2014 on, Honest Trailers were released every week. When the series became a phenomenal success, Defy Media reportedly wanted to publish new episodes on a daily basis and expand the concept to even more kinds of subject matter: "If Defy had their way, they would have done it every day, honest this, honest that. We would have deflated much sooner." On rare occasions, two Honest Trailers have been released on the same date, for example the Honest Trailers for 'Superman (1978) and Batman (1989) were released in the same day to coincide with the theatrical release of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and formed a popularity contest. Honest Trailer''s are always uploaded on Tuesday - except if other days of the week hold special significance, as was the case with the 'Back to the Future[[Honest Trailer - Back to the Future| Honest Trailer]]' which was released to coincide exactly with "Back to the Future Day" on Wednesday October 21, 2015. ''Honest Trailers are also published on platforms like Facebook and IGTV. The YouTube videos are edited into a slightly different format to suit these different platforms, for example by having captions on all the time, and using square or vertical framing to focus on where the action is in the frame (for more information, read the video design case study on Medium). Popularity You probably already know the Screen Junkies and their famous "Honest Trailers". The channel has become a key player in the YouTube game, with each video seen hundreds of thousands of times. The fake trailers are always dubbed with a deep voice enunciating and mocking the weak spots of the movies through irresistible jokes. ~ Arthur Cios''A, Cios (February 22, 2019), 'Ouch: The Honest Trailer Of The 2019 Oscars Hits Just The Right Spots, Konbini Honest Trailers is the highest-viewed series on the '''Screen Junkies channel by a wide margin. In 2013, Tubefilter noted that "most of the traffic on Screen Junkies is driven by a single series, Honest Trailers." In addition, Tubefilter described Honest Trailers as Screen Junkies' "crown jewel." All Honest Trailers combined are a source of over 1 billion views. In general, popular films produce the most popular Honest Trailers, ''a trend that is consistent across all seasons of the show. The highest viewed ''Honest Trailers of all time are from Season 1 to Season 3: Titanic, Game of Thrones Vol. 1 and Frozen. In 2018, a typical Honest Trailer reached around 1 million YouTube views in its first week of release, but Honest Trailers for extremely popular movies often exceeded that number. For example, the highest-viewed Honest Trailer for 2018 was Avengers: Infinity War, which achieved over 7 million views in its first 6 months of release. Honest Trailers are also uploaded to Facebook and attract a significant amount of views on that platform. Honest Trailers are particularly popular with people from younger demographics. PR Daily noted that the rising popularity of video essays like Honest Trailers is part of "YouTube's golden era" and coincides with the fading popularity of print newspaper film reviews among millennials. In the same article, PR Daily also wrote: "Millions of YouTube users, many of whom are millennials, are subscribing to an art form that was once relegated to film snobs and art enthusiasts. Younger consumers flock to YouTube because it’s accessible and feeds their appetite for immediate social media." The popularity of Honest Trailers has declined somewhat in line with changes to the YouTube algorithm and increased competition in the digital space. The decrease in views is most noticeable from around Season 7 on, which coincided wit major changes to the YouTube algorithm in 2016. The Honest Trailers writers have made several self-aware jokes about the palpable decrease in views, for example the Deadpool Honest Trailer labels Honest Trailers "some played-out web series," while the Deadpool 2 Honest Trailer ''derides the series as "a YouTube format that's been chugging along for six f*cking years, even though everyone knows they peaked with ''Frozen." Tone and Voice Honest Trailers has a solid voice and it’s consistent and it’s regular and you know what you’re going to get, but I would argue that it wasn’t always like that.... Go back and watch 'Phantom Menace in 3D' or watch 'The Dark Knight' and 'The Dark Knight Rises. It’s not just the voice that’s different, it’s the feel, the tone. They’re a little angrier; they’re a little snarkier. But now that program has had time to find a consistent voice and a balance. ~ 'Joe Starr'Napzok K. (Producer). (2017, February 2) 'From God To Improv - Joe Starr, The Napzok Files podcast Early Days (2012 - early 2013) .]] The tone and voice of Honest Trailers has evolved dramatically over the years. When the series was first created, the series was designed to appeal primarily to young men and the first season of Honest Trailers is markedly different from the rest of the series. Early Honest Trailers used a more brutal tone, harsher criticisms and more provocative "dude bro" humor. Some of the earliest Honest Trailers were praised for their negative tone, but many were criticized for it. For example, in response to the Skyfall Honest Trailer (episode 18), MTV wrote an extensive article rebutting every point made in the Honest Trailer and called the series a "declaration of war against fun." They wrote that the Honest Trailers series was "originally intended to live up to its title and present previews in a way that more accurately represented the actual films. Somewhere along the way, ''Honest Trailers' has devolved into a series of nit-picky video essays that seemingly hates every aspect of the movies."'' (Kevin P. Sullivan, February 6, 2013, MTV). Similarly, in 2013, Cameron Cook of Culture Mass argued that the early Honest Trailers were glaring examples of rising negativity culture. Cook wrote, "Youtube channel ScreenJunkies has been posting a series of Honest Trailers for everything from Harry Potter to Les Miserables, with one goal in mind–to say as many negative things about the movie as possible in a very short amount of time. They’re hugely popular. Sometimes the insults are warranted, but they’re often undeserved (or misinformed) jabs at pieces of popular culture that are easy targets to begin with.... Some movies are better than others, but when we can’t tell the difference anymore because of our need to make a snarky comment, we lose the love of that thing we had to begin with." ''(C. Cook, Mary 30, 2013, Nicolas Cage, Honest Trailers, and The Culture of Negativity, Culture Mass via the Wayback Machine).'' In various'' Honest Trailers Commentaries, the writers have said they agree the early Honest Trailers were too mean. In a May 2017 interview with Polygon, Honest Trailers co-creator Andy Signore suggested, "there have been some cruel and mean-spirited jokes in their earlier videos that, in hindsight, the team probably didn’t need." Later Years (late-2013 and on) for Captain America: The Winter Soldier was 'Captain America: He's Cool Now.' The positive slant on this film illustrates the series' gentler tone in 2014.]] The tone of Honest Trailers evolved during Season 2 'and beyond. The series began to focus more on calling out a film's flaws in a good-natured way. In addition, the series gradually moved away from 'sophomoric humor. The critical perception of the series' tone changed significantly after the release of the incredibly positive Season 3 episode 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier Honest Trailer. Directors Anthony and Joseph Russo said they were fans of Honest Trailers and used the series as inspiration to make Captain America: The Winter Soldier a better film. In response, CinemaBlend wrote: While commenters have often decried Honest Trailers for accused cynicism or buzz-killing, it's clear the videos have proved a true source of inspiration for one of the summer's best films. And really, isn't that the point of this kind of dedicated nitpicking? To demand movies that allow us to suspend disbelief and experience an incredible ride? I used to think that at their best Honest Trailers provide some catharsis for movie fans who've been heartbroken over a film that didn't dare live up to their expectations. But it seems that at their best, Honest Trailers can actually make for better movies. Even Marvel movies. ''(Captain America: The Winter Soldier'' Honest Trailer (episode 70) - Kristy Puchko, 20 August, 2014, CinemaBlend) Fast Company wrote that the decision to be overwhelmingly positive in the Captain America: The Winter Soldier Honest Trailer was "a major creative leap for a series that has made a name for itself by doing the opposite of sucking up... the departure also shows how, as a brand, Honest Trailers is not just about slinging snark for the sake of driving traffic...every criticism that’s lobbed is laboriously debated for its credibility and fairness, so that stings never feel gratuitous; they simply feel true." Soon after, the surprisingly positive The Fault in Our Stars Honest Traile''r (also from 'Season 3) cemented '''Screen Junkies' reputation as being playful and fair in their criticisms. At the time, Bustle wrote: It's their job to poke fun, and so they do, but there's a distinct lack of venom. In fact, there's something almost akin to respect? And there's definitely a lot of enjoyment. Since when do Honest Trailers lead into their roasting with the caveat that they're talking about "well-rounded characters?" ''(The Fault in Our Stars'' Honest Trailer (episode 73) - Alanna Bennett, September 25, 2014, Bustle) Joe Starr explained the motto of the writing team is always "Honest first, then funny." He said when he first joined the team as a staff writer in 2015, his initial drafts were rejected for being far too harsh on good films. By 2018, Honest Trailers was well-known for its good-humored approach to film criticism and was often contrasted with the different, harsher, and much nit-pickier approach taken by YouTube channel CinemaSins, creators of the "Everything Wrong With" series. In a review of a Season 11 episode, Slash Film wrote: While we’re supremely against all the nonsense that CinemaSins puts forth in their recurring video series, we appreciate what the folks at Screen Junkies put forth every week with their Honest Trailers. At the very least, they’re clever in their humorous observations about critiques, plot holes and we love the new title they give to all their targets.(Ethan Anderton, Slash Film, May 2nd, 2018) For more information on the similarities and differences between Honest Trailers and CinemaSins' "Everything Wrong With" series, please see main article: Comparison of Honest Trailers and CinemaSins''.'' For more information about the history and evolution of the Honest Trailers ''series,'' please see the overview pages for each season: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Critical reception See main article: 'Critical reception of the Honest Trailers series'' ''.'' Slate called it a "masterpiece" and potentially "the Citizen Kane of Honest Trailers."]] Generally, the critical reception of the Honest Trailers series has been very positive. The Nerdist summarizes the strengths of the Honest Trailers series like this, "they say everything that we wish we could about the movies we love. No film escapes their watchful and hilariously snarky gaze. It’s always satisfying when they set their sights on some of the more, let’s say, success-challenged films like Jupiter Ascending and Fantastic Four or give us a bit of nostalgia by picking apart older films like 8 Mile and Terminator 2. Where the Honest Trailers really shine is when they lock onto fan-favorite films and tear them a new one as they did with blockbusters like Iron Man and Interstellar. Even Toy Story couldn’t avoid their treatment." Many of the most critically well-received Honest Trailers include meta humor and playful twists on the established Honest Trailers format. In 2019, Ethan Anderton of Slash Film wrote that Screen Junkies' frequently meta approach "is the kind of stuff that makes me enjoy Honest Trailers more than any other ongoing web series with a certain schtick. Every now and then they figure out a fun way to take the style of a movie and use it to play with their own medium." Some of the most critically well-received episodes include: * The Wolf of Wall Street, in which the writers playfully poke fun at the movie by including as many F-words as possible in the narration. CinemaBlend wrote that this video was "probably one of, if not, the best Honest Trailers they've ever assembled" and even suggested it was superior to the film's actual trailer because it sold the movie as an "entertainment experience," not a "commodity." * ''Transformers: Age of Extinction'', which included a switch to Chinese narration mid-way through in a meta-reference to the film pandering to the Chinese market. Slate described it as a "masterpiece" and potentially "the Citizen Kane of Honest Trailers." * Deadpool, which features an appearance by Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds as the fourth-wall breaking superhero himself. The Guardian declared that "the Honest Trailer for Deadpool turns out to be an even better vehicle for the self-healing Marvel mutant’s peculiar brand of R-rated banter than the movie itself." * La La Land, which parodied the mix-up at the 2017 Oscars ceremony by switching to Moonlight mid-way through. The Observer wrote it was an "Honest Trailers masterpiece" that "proves ‘Honest Trailers’ is the best YouTube series." For more, see main article: Critical reception of the Honest Trailers series. Industry response Publicity and Financial Benefits Within the film industry, Honest Trailers may be considered a form of publicity that promotes films. Charity Hess explains, "The movie industry has noticed Honest Trailer’s success which draws attention to their films, and despite some negative criticism, many films are now encouraging Honest Trailers to do an Honest Trailer analysis of the new releases.... Honest Trailers has a network within the film industry and with movie fans....Filmmakers are finding that this interaction increases buzz." Celluloid Junkie makes a similar point, noting that Honest Trailers "are helping market the very films they are spoofing." CNBC wrote"getting skewered [by Honest Trailers] has turned into a badge of honor for some filmmakers," and "some directors have even suggested in advance to "Honest Trailers" how to make fun of their films." In the same article, the site wrote, "nine times out of 10 filmmakers love the parodies." Furthermore, film studios may benefit financially from Honest Trailers through taking a cut of YouTube ad revenue. Wired argued that "studios seem to be warming to the fact they can take ad revenue from YouTube clips with their content rather than ask that they be taken down." Copyright and Fair Use reacted to a copyright strike made against the Honest Trailer for Boyhood.]] Despite this, some Honest Trailers have been hit with copyright strikes from copyright holders. A notable example was the Honest Trailer for Boyhood, which was temporarily blocked. In 2016, The Outerhaven wrote: "Screen Junkies (Producers of the popular Honest Trailers series) ... get take down notices every other day because they are pointing out major flaws in Hollywood’s promotional system, this threatening their profits. So Hollywood responds by trying to remove the content." Screen Junkies claim Honest Trailers are a form of parody, so their use of copyrighted material is covered under fair use. As part of a 2018 debate over frequent copyright strikes from one studio, Honest Trailers writer/producer Dan Murrell wrote, “Online film criticism is a huge part of new media and fair use is integral to allowing your favorite critics to make a living. Studios have to start using copyright rules sensibly and stop punishing the people who are giving their movies exposure and coverage.” (as quoted in this Polygon article). Cultural impact '' a better film.]] Honest Trailers has had an impact on pop culture, popular film-making and even political news critique. Many commentators have suggested that receiving an Honest Trailer is a culturally significant pop culture rite of passage. EW remarked that "no movie has truly made it until it get the Honest Trailer treatment." CW Detroit wrote that "being roasted by the Honest Trailer team is a sign that you’ve made it to the Zeitgeist of popular cinema." Screen Rant suggested that receiving an Honest Trailer is equivalent to being "gifted with one of modern pop culture's most prestigious backhanded compliments." Another indication of Honest Trailers cultural impact is the thousands of '''reaction videos that have been made about the series and posted to YouTube. Some Honest Trailers reaction videos have gone viral in their own right and achieved millions of views. Furthermore, dozens of fan-made copies of Honest Trailers have been produced. Deadline suggested that Honest Trailers' ''impact "can be measured in terms of growing recognition of the series by major industry players—and the participation of these artists in its creation." This refers to the participation of Hollywood filmmakers in the series, including ''Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts.' '''Additionally, some film-makers have said they have been inspired by ''Honest Trailers to make their films better, most notably Anthony and Joe Russo who directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In an interview with Collider, Joe Russo said: What’s so funny is that I’m an avid honest trailer watcher. I love it, it cracks me up. So I think we talked about it in the commentary we used to sit in the room and go, “this is not going to end up in an honest trailer. This logic isn’t sound enough yet.” We literally tried to Honest Trailer proof the movie. Because what Honest Trailers really is, and I’ll say litmus test again, is “how sound is the logic in your film? How ridiculous are the buys that you’re asking the audience to make?” So we would just comb through the script over and over again and go, “how do we shore up this logic? How do we shore up this logic?” So it was a very helpful exercise for us. (Weintraub, S. September 3, 2014. Collider) Additionally, some film-makers have mimicked aspects of Honest Trailers ''in their films, for example, as noted by CinemaBlend, the end credits sequences of 2016's 'Deadpool' closely resembled an ''Honest Trailers "starring" section. In an interview with Art of the Title, director Tim Miller explained that an earlier idea was to include a full Honest Trailer in the end credits: Miller and Norn Johnson pitched doing our own version of the Honest Trailers, where the guys go in and tell you everything that was wrong with the movie. I loved that idea! We actually wanted to get the guy who does them to do an Honest Trailers version of Deadpool and run it during the titles. I can’t wait until they do one! laughs (Perkins, W. March 22, 2016. Art of the Title) The parody trailer style codified by Honest Trailers has also been used by some news outlets as a form of political critique. For example, in June 2018, US President Donald Trump made a fake movie trailer to promote his Singapore summit with North Korea's Chairman Kim Jong Un. News outlets The Independent and The New York Times both responded with parody trailers that critiqued Trump's video using the style and language of Honest Trailers. Jesse Balzer of the research project Ruining Trailers observed, "While it may initially seem strange to see these news outlets mimicking Honest Trailers in editorial content, these spoofs ultimately indicate the affective utility of trailers outside the movie theater." Awards Honest Trailers is one of the most acclaimed web series. It has been nominated at every major web series awards show, including the Streamy Awards, the Shorty Awards, the Webby Awards, the International Academy of Web Television Awards, and even the Emmy Awards. Emmys Honest Trailers has been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Short Form Variety Series' three times. It is the only series to have been nominated three times and every year since the award was introduced. Honest Trailers is also among a minority of web series to have been nominated for this award. As Tubefilter notes, the Short Form Variety Series award was specifically introduced to honor web series, however, most of the nominees "are either direct companions to TV programs or are produced by TV networks." Tubefilter declared "the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences continues to show that it is too deferential to TV-adjacent programming to accurately recognize exemplary digital work." * 2018 Primetime Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Short Form Variety Series' - Nominee - Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Joe Starr '''(Producers) * '''2017 Primetime Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Short Form Variety Series' - Nominee - Andy Signore, Dan Murrell, Spencer Gilbert, Michael Bolton, Christina Kline (Producers) * 2016 Primetime Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Short Form Variety Series' - Nominee - Andy Signore (executive producer), Barry Blumberg (executive producer), Dan Murrell (producer), Spencer Gilbert (producer) Streamys * 2018 The Streamy Awards: TJ Nordaker and Kevin Williamsen - 'Best Editing' '''(Nominee) * '''2017 The Streamy Awards: Spencer Gilbert, Joe Starr, Dan Murrell & Andy Signore - 'Best Writing' (Nominee) * 2017 The Streamy Awards: Honest Trailers &''' Ryan Reynolds '- ''Best Collaboration'' for the 'Logan' Honest Trailer. (Winner) * '''2016' The Streamy Awards: Spencer Gilbert,' Joe Starr, Dan Murrell '&''' Andy Signore - 'Best Writing' (Winner) * '''2015 The Streamy Awards: Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell,' Erica Russell '& Andy Signore - 'Best Writing' (Nominee) International Academy of Web Television Awards * 2015 IAWTV: 'Best Comedy Series' '''(Winner - tied with "The Real Housewives of Horror") '''Shorty Awards * 2016 The Shorty Awards: 'Team Internet: Best Web Series' (Finalist) Webby Awards * 2017 The Webby Awards: 'Video Remixes/Mashups' - People's Voice * 2016 The Webby Awards: 'Video Remixes/Mashups' - People's Voice * 2015 The Webby Awards: 'Video Remixes/Mashups' (Webby Winner and People's Voice) * 2013 The Webby Awards: 'Video Remixes/Mashups' (Honoree) Honest Trailers Commentaries .]] Each Honest Trailer is accompanied by an Honest Trailer Commentary in which a panel of Honest Trailers writers watch and riff on an episode of Honest Trailers. This includes sharing their general thoughts on the movie, dissecting their writing process, and showing deleted jokes that didn't make it into the actual trailer. Honest Trailers Commentaries combine elements of traditional reaction videos, conventional audio commentaries, and comedy riffing tracks. Honest Trailers Commentaries videos are usually 20 - 30 minutes long. They are hosted by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Joe Starr and Lon Harris. These videos have been posted to YouTube on the ScreenJunkies News channel since mid-2017 (starting with Memento). Earlier videos used to be available to Screen Junkies Plus subscribers, but are no longer available since the website/app was discontinued in 2018. Screen Junkies currently don't have any way to release their old content. See the main Honest Trailers Commentaries page for more information. References External links * Honest Trailers Playlist on YouTube '- You can watch all episodes here * 'Honest Trailers page on IMDb - You can rate and review all episodes here * Honest Trailers page on TV Tropes - Lots of funny moments in the series are described here. * Screen Junkies page on Know Your Meme - contains information about the Honest Trailers series Category:Honest Trailers Category:Screen Junkies Category:Web series Category:Comedy Category:Emmy nominated Category:2010s Category:Youtubers Category:Parody Category:Satire Category:Shows